Drone Image Analyzer
“We can now display analyses and drone images in myKWS”
Sales has a new tool at hand to support farmers in the shape of the Drone Image Analyzer.
myKWS is offering a new tool: the Drone Image Analyzer. It was created as part of a publicly funded project, says project manager Nora Sophie Eichhorn.
What is the basic concept behind the Drone Image Analyzer?
The use of drones is part of everyday work at our breeding stations. We collect data from the plants growing in our trial fields with them. Using artificial intelligence such as machine learning, digital evaluation of the collected data is growing in accuracy: Over the past few years, we have gathered enough image material to train our own AI-based models. The question arose as to whether our customers could also benefit from drone data. In the past, Sales had already used drones on actual areas used for growing crops at farms. However, providing and analyzing image material was problematical because the amount of data collected per field is very large.
What does the new workflow involve?
In this project, we use drones that are equipped with a high-precision real time kinematic (RTK) module so that we end up with a result that has an accuracy of three to four centimeters. We can automatically analyze the drone images using our proprietary PhenoPro software. With the latest adaptations from the current 5G North Net project, we can now display the results and the drone image itself graphically in myKWS. The necessary special software and hardware is provided by KWS. Farmers just need a web browser.
The Drone Image Analyzer makes anomalies in fields visible.
What is 5G North Net?
We were tasked with developing application examples via 5G in agriculture and a digital tool as part of the publicly funded project of the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport. Thanks to the cross-departmental collaboration between R&D and the German Agro Service, we realized that Sales needed a visualization tool. The following colleagues were involved in developing the Drone Image Analyzer: Julita Emersleben, Christoph Fritzsch (from R&D), Ariane Knauth, Robert Grefe and Michael Auer (BU Sugarbeet), Ludwig v. Blomberg, Milica Perisic (GMC) and Sayan Mukhopadhaya (GIT). The project will run until the end of the year, after which we will continue to monitor the tool internally.
What analyses does the Drone Image Analyzer supply?
We started with the percentage of soil covered by leaves. The more developed the sugarbeet, the higher the soil cover by the foliage. Other possible applications include canopy closure and yellowing analysis for sugarbeet. Moving forward, we want to expand the service to other Business Units.
What are the tool’s advantages for farmers?
The Drone Image Analyzer enables Sales to share findings directly with them in myKWS. They get an overview of their sugarbeet stands from the birds’ eye perspective, and the analysis also makes anomalies in the field visible and pinpoints their position – because this tool means we can now visualize images with large amounts of data smoothly in myKWS.
And how does KWS itself benefit from the Drone Image Analyzer?
We accompany the sugarbeet internally from an agro-economic perspective and can see from the data we collect how our genetics perform under real conditions. After all, every field is different, and sometimes even the types of soil differ on a single field. That gives us insights into our varieties, allowing us to further improve our seeds, for example with regard to diseases. |
Sales has a new tool at hand to support farmers in the shape of the Drone Image Analyzer.
Nora Sophie Eichhorn
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
